Gurney’s Pitta spotted on April 13 – the first of its kind in three years

A female Gurney’s Pitta, a highly-endangered bird species, has been spotted in mid-April in Khao Phra-Bang Kram wildlife sanctuary in Krabi province – the first of its kind in three years since 2013.

Mr Tunya Netithamkul, director-general of the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plants Conservation, hailed the finding of the rare bird on April 13 as a clear indication that the bird has not gone extinct in Thailand after the bird was last seen in 2013.

He said that the department planned to protect the spotted female Gurney’s Pitta from humans and natural threats and to try to multiply the bird through natural breeding.

He disclosed that the department has had one male Gurney’s Pitta kept in Surat Thani. This male will be trained so that it can survive in the wild and will be used to match with the female spotted recently by keeping it in a big cage of 5 x 5 metres in size to be installed at the location where the female Gurney’s Pitta was recently spotted, he said.

Massive agriculture has stripped Khao Nor Joojee in Krabi, the habitat of Gurney’s Pitta, of forest cover and threatened the existence of the rare bird species.

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